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trbe 4.egen6 of"EtcAtfc"

t) omanian and foreiqn{l+,i,torions modern and

contemporary tried and forthe most part have succeed-

ed to make the proper distinc-

tion between Vlad "Tepes'

(Vlad'the lmpaler', Vlad the

Impaler henceforth) the

lord of Walachia fi44a, Vr6-1462,1476), the fearless fiqhter

aqainst the ottoman danqer

from the time of Mehmed ll(r4rr-r48r), the'Conqueror' ofConstantinople (U::) - and

the bloodthirsty and qhoulish

character Droculo,'related'by certain stories from the trth

century or 'made-up' by the

rgth century post-romantic fic-

tion written by Bram Stoker.

trbe ctymologry of"D,taanV'

ln r4oa, the kinq of Hunqary,Siqismund of Luxemburgfi3Bt-tA3T), has founded the

Order of the Draqon, whose

mark was a draqon twined

lJhb $epeo 5

at the feet of the Chris-

tian cross. The order was

formed to fiqht aqainst the

Christian heresy (especially

Hussite movement) but also

to orqanize the crusaderfiqht aqainst the ottoman ex-

pansion.

Vlad - Vlad the lmpaler's

father and candidate for the

throne of the Wallachia - be-

came a member of the orderin UI at Nurnberq in Qer-many. As a ruler from 14;6,

Vlad (ut:6-t442, t4,l,l-tt)A1) in

more than one circumstances

used the Draqon mark on

two monetary issues, on royalchancellery seals, or carved instone.

A nickname that corresponds

with Vlad's affiliation to the

order of the Draqon must

be imposed even before his

fi

ascent to the throne of the

Wallachia since an internal

document issued in Ul6 talks

about .Draculia

voivode' iustenthroned.

We know the fact that in theperiod between Ulrand 1416,

waitinq for a convenient oc-

casion, the candidate Vladhad lived for the most partin Transylvania, surely inSiqhiqoara 6ch0ssburq, inthe qerman area, and theqerman word droche is trans-

lated "draqon'. A document

from Vrz issued at Budaby the qeneral qovernor ofthe Kinqdom of Hunqary,lancu de Hunedoara (Hu-

nyadi Janos) (1446-14)l), in

medieval latin - one of thecultural lanquaqes of thatperiod next to slavonic (old

Slavic lanquaqe) - mentions

DIcb $epeg 7

Vlad (the future ruler Vladthe lmpaler) son of deadvoivode "Drocwl tDracul),and in translation the latinword droco means "draqon'.

We acknowledqe the fact that'Dracul' had been used by

certain sources of that time

to desiqnate Vlad Dracul'sdescendants, Radu "cel Fru-

mos' (Radu the Handsome),

the other Draculea (accord-

inq to the byzantine histori-

oqrapher who lived in thatperiod, Laonic Chalcocondil,and accordinq to AntonioBonfini <A34-tro3>, officialhistorioqrapher of the kinq

of Hunqary, Mathias corvin),Vlad the lmpaler callinq him-

self "Drakulya" in uf:.

-+i-

qrr-q

q8

trbe nictnames

"Erccu[" cnb

"Eepes" inofficfcl Somcnfcn6ocumentg

Romanian documents - acts

of princely chancellery and

chronicles - subsequent to

pi

DIob Gepes

Vlad's reiqn and his son's

reiqn, to distinquish them, will

mention them on the throneof Wallachia institutionalizinqtheir names,

.Dracul' for the

first and .Tepes'

for the sec-

ond.ln the official documentsissued durinq their reiqn,

these two lords have used thesimple title of 'Vlad'.

trbe polfficclaoptlisticctfon of

nictname "Etecut"

Concerninq the'leqendary'side of Vlad the lmpaler'spersonality, the "fables' ofan educated and popular lit-

erature from the second halfof the rrth century call him"Dracula', the nickname ofhis father.

)ii

Those who had the interestto discredit him, the 'politi-

cal refuqees' from southernTransylvania (candidates

or noblemen), the cities ofKronstadt (Bra;ov) andHermannstadt (Sibiu), andMathias Corvin's entouraqe,

have hiqhliqhted his crueland demonic behavior, em-

phasizinq his name'Dracul'.The nickname belonqinq tothis father was born fromthe relationship with the

draqon's imaqe. ln that pe-

riod, the nickname Draculwas perverted insidiously:

by the dissimulation of its

initial meaninq 'draqon' andits romanian transcriptions('Draculea', 'Draculea','Draculia' etc.); by hiqhliqht-

inq the meaninq of the ro-

manian neo-latin homonym

DIc6 Sepee ll

droc ffrom lal. drlco, draqon)which by semantic evolutionmeans

.devil' in Romanianlanquaqe. The associationof this nickname 'Dracul'

and the terror which have

inspired his demonic actionsserved as a politic-diplomatic

instrument to his enemies.

trbe fwst writtencccounts on t\e

actiong of tbe"Dofipob e Brcanlctl

The appearance of the firstwritten account on the ac-

tions of Dracula the Voivodein central and western Eu-rope, has coincided withthe campaiqn of iustificationlaunched by the Hunqariankinq Mathias Corvin fi{ra-

) llr

lrgo). What has actually hap-

pened? Facinq the ottoman

danqer, the Pope Pius ll

fi4za-tA64l - known also as a

distinquished humanist in theperson of Eneas Silvius Pic-colomini fi4orl464) - took the

initiatiYe to orqanize a qreat

anti-ottoman crusade at the

Christian convention held inMantova in ltalY (June Ur9

- January u6o). Eventually

a papal bull took the initia-

tive of a three-year war, afew decrees decidinq the for-

mation of special funds that

would be made available fororqanizinq the anti-ottoman

crusade. The difficulty of the

war had to be carried by the

states from the.first line':theVenetian aristocratic repub-

lic, which saw its mediterra-

nean possessions threatened;

t)lob Gepeg l)

the Kinqdom of Hunqary,interested in the mastery ofthe lower Danube and themouths of the qreat europe-

an river;the Albanians of theqreat soldier Skanderbeq{Qierqi Kastrioti, supreme

commander of the Leaque

of Lezhe, V44-146il, one ofthe last pieces of resistancein the Balkans.Vlad the lmpaler, ruler ofWallachia and vassal to the

kinq of Hunqary, had a fore-qround role on the'first lineof history' (accordinq to theqreat Romanian historianNicolae lorqa), in that his

country existed on the full

lenqth of lower Danube in

direct contact with the en-

emy which was the obiectof the crusade, the OttomanEmpire.